Last Resort
by esama
Summary: In year 2055, Dr. Hermione Weasley stands to address the International Confederation of Wizards on the matter of magical extinction. Harry Potter x Stargate crossover plot bunny.


**Last resort**

The enormous congress hall was full of noise as witches and wizards of all nations talked amongst each other. Some were greeting and welcoming their companions and others were making introductions, but most of them were talking about the matter at hand, the reason why over two hundred of the greatest magicians of the twenty-first century had gathered there that day. Some could be heard talking about global warming, others about magical extinctions. In one cluster several witches were going over the facts of the recent pandemics, while a group of warlocks were debating about overpopulation, pollution, and an ever growing lack of resources.

Harry Potter, who had long since shaken off the past fame of the Boy-Who-Lived and was now aged seventy four, eyed the crowd. The meetings of the International Confederation of Wizards were getting more and more popular. Nowadays not a month went by without a few meetings, which usually ended up stretching over days. In comparison to how it had been when he had been younger, when years could go past without a single meeting, things had definitely changed.

Glancing to his left where his oldest friend was fretting over her notes, the warlock smiled. "Hermione, there is nothing to worry about," he said softly even as she opened a sheet of parchment and begun pulling out illusionary screens from its surface. He marvelled at sight for a moment. Ever since Muggles had started incorporating hologram technologies some forty years back, parchments had stopped being writing materials but bases for illusion screens. These days they were rather like modern computers with their multiple hologram screens, except magical.

"This is possibly the most important presentation since twenty-twenty-five, Harry, so excuse me if I fret a little," Hermione snapped, shifting the illusionary screens around with her wand before stopping and frowning at one. Then she glanced up at him. "Do you think people will listen to our plan?"

"At this point I don't see how they could not. No one has brought up a viable solution to our problems yet, not before you came up with this one," Harry said calmly, folding his hands and looking over the crowd again. They were still waiting for the last ICW members to arrive. "They will listen. They will not like it and some may not agree, but in the end, they will all listen. It's _you_ after all."

"No need to sound so smug about it," Hermione muttered but a smile touched the corner of her lips before she turned back to her notes.

Harry didn't answer. They both knew that he was insufferably satisfied over the fact that these days Hermione Weasley's name was far wider known than his was. Not that he was exactly unknown - being the British Minister of Magic and the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, he did receive some respect. Hermione, however, was known all over the world as Doctor Weasley, the woman who cracked the mystery of magic. Harry might've been the leader of a nation, but Hermione was had been the one to discover magical evolution - and extinction - among other things.

Slowly, the members of the ICW started to quiet down and take seats behind the rows of circular tables that surrounded the podium in the middle of the hall. Hermione was still going through her notes beside Harry as the Supreme Mugwump took her stand at the podium. Harry nudged at his old friend's side to bring her attention to the present.

"Welcome to the fourteenth session of the International Confederation of Wizards of the year two-thousand and fifty-five," Gabrielle Delacour spoke, her voice automatically translated into several languages for those who couldn't understand French. Harry, who heard her words in English, was immensely thankful of the progress made with translation spells and wondering how much difference a little bit of magical creature blood did. Gabrielle was almost seventy, but she still looked closer to forty.

"Today we have present, not only the members of the Confederation, but numerous leaders of magical nations - Secretary and Ministers of Magic," the Supreme Mugwump nodded respectfully towards Harry and the other heads of magical governments. "As well as our leading magical scientists, researchers and heads of various research and investigation departments," she nodded towards Hermione and other scientists in the hall. "I thank you all for coming."

Harry glanced over his shoulder to the head of the Department of Mysteries, who was sitting directly behind him and Hermione. Zacharias Smith, who had worked closely with Hermione on the project, was going through his notes just like Hermione had been. "Zach, do you have the attendance list?" Harry asked. Without looking up the only unspeakable whose name was public information, handed him a blank slip parchment. "Thanks."

"Today," Gabrielle continued as Harry pulled out the illusion sheets from the parchment. "The matter of our discussion will be the magical decline of the last three decades - and possible counter measures against our ongoing disaster. We will be hearing a presentation from Doctor Hermione Weasley, who as we all know has been at the head of the decline search from the very start."

There was a around of polite clapping which Harry didn't join, in favour of going through the attendance list. He had read it before with Hermione and Zacharias when they had made sure that everyone who needed to be there, was there, but he couldn't remember the two hundred names from memory. _'The Secretary of Magic is here,'_ he noticed, glancing over his shoulder and raising his eyebrows to his magical counterpart of the U.S.

"You gonna save the world today, Potter?" Secretary Jackson mouthed to him.

"We're going to try," Harry mouthed back with a grin before turning his eyes back to the podium as Gabrielle continued.

"Now, without further ado, I will let the good Doctor have the podium. Dr. Weasley," Gabrielle stepped back from the podium, making a motion towards Hermione, who took a deep breath and stood up. This time Harry clapped along with the rest of the crowd as his old friend made her way to the podium.

"Thank you, thank you," Hermione nodded to them, waiting for them to quiet down before arranging her notes on the podium. "I will start my presentation by going over the problem," she said, tapping her wand against one of the parchments and bringing forward an illusion screen which she enlarged until it was as big as the screens of old movie theatres. It displayed a two dimensional, slightly see-through image of the Earth.

"As we all now know," Hermione started her speech. "All magic on Earth comes from the living creatures that use it and live from it. It was brought to Earth hundreds of thousands of years ago by a race we only know as the High Ones who planted the seeds of magic by releasing Dragons, Unicorns and Phoenixes to live on Earth. Due to their presence, magic begun to flourish, affecting the creatures and plants of Earth and evolving them into the forms and shapes we know now - magical humans among them."

She waved her wand and a grid formed around the Earth, going from North Pole to the South Pole. "Nowadays magic has formed a sort of network of lines we call Ley Lines. This image is merely a crude representation of their numerous paths and flows, but as we all know, the magic flows around and inside the Earth in constant motion which has, for the last thousands of years, nourished us as much as we have nourished it."

Harry glance around. Fifty years ago this knowledge had been nothing but wild speculations of the rarest of magical scientists but now, thanks to Hermione's numerous researches and tests, it was a well known fact. The proof of that was that no one in the room stood up to contradict Hermione.

"Now, as we are painfully aware, for the last hundred, hundred and fifty years the Ley Lines - and, indeed, our very own magic - had been disturbed by various external influences. The natural force of magic has been, for the lack of a better word, muddled and stalled by the effects of muggle pollution," Hermione waved her wand to display an image of a nameless muggle factory. "Pollution, which Muggles are well on their way of getting rid of, of course. Factories like these no longer exist and the quantities of pollution from the beginning of the twenty-first century is no longer spewed into the atmosphere - however… it was, and still is, there. And it has had an effect on us."

Harry leaned back in his seat and sighed. He had heard these theories thousands of times before, but it was still somewhat hard to believe. Things had seemed so… carefree and perfectly alright when he had been younger, just fresh from the second war, but now… their entire existence was threatened by an enemy they could not effectively fight.

"The Ley Lines are running dry. They were born over thousands and thousands of years and nothing we can do now could even begin to repair them," Hermione sighed, bringing forth another image, then another and another, displaying old pictures of magical creatures. "All the creatures you see here, delicate magical creatures whose existence depended on the Ley Lines, are no more. Several others are faced with the risk of extinction within the year; more will not survive to see the next century. Various magical herbs and fungi are no more as well, and despite our best efforts, we have yet to find a solution to keep these delicate organisms living with deteriorating Ley Lines. And with each creature and herb that becomes extinct, the Lines deteriorate a little faster."

There was a moment of silence when no one spoke. Thirty years ago when Hermione had first introduced this theory, it hadn't been received well - the ICW had broken out into a near riot and called her a fraud and lunatic, among other things. Days of such happy denial were long gone now.

"Within fifty years, the Lines will either be no more or they will be too weak to support magic anymore," Hermione continued. "We have all seen the proof of this - and its effects on _us_. The immunity of wizards and witches has gone down severely - the pandemic of the last decade killed ten percent of all magical humans, and we believe that it is only the first of many to come. Muggleborns no longer emerge - the last muggleborn strong enough to attend a magical school graduated three years ago," she sighed. "And twenty percent of magical children born today are squibs… or they are born dead."

She looked over the crowd which was dead silent. "We all know we have a problem and we all are trying to find a viable solution to it, but… the fact remains that we might already be too late. No matter what we do, in fifty years Earth will no longer be able to support magic."

Hermione raised her hands as a few wizards and witches shot out sparks from their wands in wish to add or ask something. "It's true," she spoke before anyone could interrupt, "that as long as Unicorns, Phoenixes and Dragons remain, the Ley Lines might recover and that these three magical creatures are in no danger of extinction at the moment. They can survive without the Lines," she nodded in agreement. "However it took thousands of years for the Lines to be born in the first place, it could easily take as much time for them to recover, if they can at all. Either way it will take longer than we have. In a few hundred years, magical humans will be no more. If magical humans will emerge again, they will be a second generation of Ley Line magicians - and no doubt they will be different. They will not be _us_."

No sparks shot out again. Hermione eyed the crowd again before breaking the illusion screen, and bringing forth another one from another parchment. This one was an image of a round metal circle with triangle like locks at the rim. "Since the declassification of the Stargate Program of United States in year two-thousand and twenty-one, another solution has been open for us," she continued, motioning at the alien device. This time the room shivered with murmurs in response to her statement.

Harry could understand the aversion most wizards had for the alien device. The thought of other worlds with intelligent life had shaken the magical worlds badly. At first it had been denied and for a long while the very existence of the Stargate and extraterrestrial life had been a near taboo among the magicians of Earth. But for a while now they hadn't been able to deny it. Not with the advancement of human technology - and the various aliens that interacted with Earth were hard to ignore. Not to mention of the fleet of Earth's space ships, those were harder and harder to deny each year as there were hundreds of them now.

Harry, having been off-world once and aboard a space ship, Prometheus the third, knew the power of muggle science - and the revolution of space - that had washed over Earth. However, though he was more open-minded than most magical government heads, even he preferred Earth and magic. The two times he had stepped outside Earth's atmosphere had been… horrible. It had felt like someone had cut off his arms and legs and made him blind and deaf all at once. Outside Earth, he had been unable to use magic to the extent he was used to. Even with the study of the Ancients and their psychic abilities, the fact that magic belonged to Earth did not change.

That was why the possibility of wizards moving to another planet did not please anyone. Even Harry didn't like the idea, though, if a planet capable of supporting magic was found, he knew they would have to go. As they were now, they were dying.

"For the past twenty years groups of brave wizards have been looking for a refuge for us in the stars, for another planet like Earth capable of supporting magic, another world with Ley Lines… Yet, for all our searching, for all the planets our wizards and witches have visited, we have not found one," Hermione frowned. "And it is very much likely that we never will either. Earth is unique among our galaxy and all the galaxies explored by human kind so far…"

She fell silent and Harry knew why. This was the key point, the solution they had come up with - and it wasn't going to be liked. Harry didn't like it either. It was a long shot, an extremely unpleasant one at that, but even so… Harry had to admit that it was probably the only chance they had.

"However, we have a means… of creating such a place for our kind," Hermione finally spoke, the words slightly choked. A rush of murmurs washed over the crowd again but they quieted down as Hermione raised her hands, calling for silence. "We have at our disposal a way of travelling not only across space, but time. Wizards have had time travel mastered longer than Muggles, and we have, I admit, ran into pitfalls with it several times. It was banned for a reason; however, given the situation, I believe that it might be the only way to survive."

"What exactly are you suggesting, Doctor Weasley?" a male voice called from the crowd. It was the Russian minister of magic, Demyan Kozlov.

"I am suggesting that a group of wizards and witches will go back in time - hundreds of thousands years back in time," Hermione spoke, opening another image - this one of a Stargate half enclosed in ice. "This is the Antarctic gate, which was buried underneath the ice of Antarctica for millions of years and wasn't discovered until nineteen-ninety-seven. By use of this, the team will take a number of Unicorns, Dragons and Phoenixes from Earth and plant them to a selected, hidden planet. This way, or so we hope, Ley Lines will be born to this second planet as they were born on Earth so that we can… relocate safely."

"If we're talking of time travel, why not travel back two, three hundred years and prevent Muggles from killing the Ley Lines in the first place?" Kozlov asked angrily. "Make them renounce their destructive technology!"

"Because we only stand here because the current technology protects us from outside forces - hostile extraterrestrials. If it had not been for technology - and the Stargate - Earth would have been destroyed before the twenty-first century even kicked in!" Secretary Jackson bared back. "We all know this - and I believe the ICW has gone over this matter previously!"

"Order, Order!" Gabrielle called as the council escalated into noise. "Doctor Weasley's presentation is not finished, the discussion will be withheld until she is done!"

"Thank you, Supreme Mugwump," Hermione thanked the younger witch before looking up. "We cannot change the past of _this_ world without dire consequences. For all we know we could make things hundreds of times worse if we tried to meddle with the events that lead into the diminishing of the Ley Lines here," she said sternly. "But we can, with marginal risk, change the past of another world, one that has been uninhabited for all its existence. Such worlds exist all around the corners of our universe; several of them even have Stargates. One of them can be… moulded to our fitting."

She raised her hand before anyone could interrupt again. "Of course, there is room for errors in this plan. The process of Ley Line creation might not hold, maybe the presence of magical creatures will not have the sort of effect on this new world as it had on Earth. Also, the people who uptake this plan will essentially be forfeiting their very lives in order to insure the future for our kind - once they have gone back all those millenniums, they cannot return by any magical means. And, the greatest risk of all, are possible hostile aliens that might come in contact with this world and see the benefit of magic…"

She opened another illusion screen to display the image of a snake-like creature with fins and wicked looking mouth. "The scourge of Goa'uld is all but eradicated from our galaxy, much thanks to the original Stargate Program," Hermione said. "But once upon a time they were holding the entire galaxy in a strangle hold - and should they discover magic… well, that is not something we wish to have happen. So, if a planet suitable to be our second home can be found, it must be hidden well."

As Hermione continued to tell what would need to be done and how it should be done, Harry let his mind wander. The fact that Goa'uld, or any other sort of hostile alien race, had never discovered magic was an untold blessing. If they had, it was possible they would have never fallen. Often Harry wondered why they had not discovered wizards or magical creatures in the times they had harvested Earth for human hosts and slaves. It wasn't like dragons and such were inconspicuous or unnoticeable… but they had never been noticed.

_'Hermione thinks we have been protected by some… entities. Either the High Ones or Ancients… the Ascended,'_ Harry's lips curled into slightest sneer. He held little love for the Ascended, their so called higher-evolved cousins. Though their achievements were something to behold, their morals weren't. He rather preferred to think that there was another, completely different reason for the fact that wizards had remained safe through all the years. Maybe magic had simply hidden them. Who knew.

"So, this is my suggestion. I believe it might be the only relatively safe way of saving our kind, magic and those who flourish from it," Hermione finished her presentation. "I'm open for questions now."

The Secretary of Magic managed to get the first chance to speak. "If this was to be done, the group that would go back in time would be essentially forfeiting not only their lives in the modern times, but their magic as well, isn't this right?" Jackson asked. "As the earlier Earth didn't have Ley Lines either."

"It's true. The ones who would do this would have to give up a great many things," Hermione nodded.

"Then who in their right mind would do it?"

"I am one of the volunteers, as is my husband and all of our children," Hermione said. "Minister Potter and his family have also expressed a willingness to volunteer, should it be necessary."

This made the crowd ripple with shock, probably more because of Harry than Hermione. Hermione was a scientist - and the one behind the idea in the first place - so her participation wasn't that shocking. But Harry was the British Minister of Magic.

They did not understand it, though. Harry closed his eyes against the curious looks and sighed. He had been impacted by the magical decline rather hard, as had his children. The pandemic of two-thousand and forty-nine had killed his wife, the mother of his children. After that they had all been willing to do just about anything to combat the deterioration of the Ley Lines - even if that meant leaving Earth and magic behind.

"I think I see a flaw in your plan, doctor," another ICW member spoke out. "If yourself and Minister Potter would go to the time thousands of years past, you would eventually grow old and die. How then would we find this planet in order to inhabit it?"

"Yes, that is a point Unspeakable Smith also roused," Hermione motioned towards the head of the Department of Mysteries. "He is also the one who countered it. Zacharias, would you like to speak?"

Harry looked over his shoulder as Zacharias nodded and stood up. "Almost sixty years ago the British Department of Mysteries was given the plans of a certain magical object which, among other things, grants immortality," he spoke, enlarging the illusion screen on his parchment so that everyone could see the blood red stone. "The wizard, who died a year after giving us the plans, was named Nicolas Flamel and the object in question is, of course, the Philosopher's Stone."

Outrage broke out in the hall as everyone demanded to know why the plans had been given to British ministry and why they hadn't been shared with the rest of the world. "Mr. Flamel demanded an Unbreakable Vow from the head of the Department of Mysteries of the time - and that each head would take the Vow as well," Zacharias spoke sharply. "The vow was to never use the plans unless the need was most dire. He did not want the stone to be used carelessly for the obvious reasons - and for the danger of it falling into the wrong hands. Until now, there had not been a dire need. Or do you think that your personal gains and lives are more important than the very existence of magic?"

There was some grumbling, but the people around quieted down.

"So you expect this group, yourself and possibly Minister Potter included, to live for… thousands of years by the use of the Philosopher's Stone?" Another member of the ICW, the German Minister of Magic spoke out. She looked slightly worried. "I am not sure if the human mind can handle that sort of thing."

"You're right, Minister," Hermione nodded, taking out another parchment and another illusion screen in it. This one displayed the plans of a potion and designs of the muggle stasis pods which had been reverse engineered from the Ancient stasis pods. "The team will be using a mixture of Draught of Living Death and these muggle stasis pods to prolong their existence and… sleep occasionally. The idea my team had was that if, say, a hundred people go to the past, only one fifth of them will be awake at a time while the rest will be in a state of suspended animation. Like this the team will only have to experience not hundreds of thousands of years but maybe few thousand… and certainly not all at once."

Hermione closed the screen. "Of course, the lengthy existence would still be taxing for the team, so once the team has been decided, they will have to carefully plan what they will do with the time they have. They will need something to preoccupy their time and their minds." She motioned towards Harry. "Minister Potter for one has decided that should he need to go, he would probably spend his time building. His sons and daughter have expressed similar ideas."

The questions continued for a moment before the room elapsed into thoughtful murmurs and chatter as the ICW pondered over the whole mission. As they seemed to show no interest of continuing the discussion in orderly fashion, Gabrielle stepped to the podium, motioning Hermione to step aside. "It seems like everyone needs a moment to think about the matters brought forth, so we will take a thirty minute break now," she spoke to the crowd. "We shall continue the discussions afterwards."

xx

Though I'm not entirely sure if I can continue this, I wanted to share the little bit I wrote because I think it's interesting idea - and I don't think I've encountered a Harry Potter Stargate crossover like this. I don't think anything I could add would live up to this bit. As it is this was just an idea I had to write down and share.

My thanks to Cody Thomas for checking the writing for errors and typos.


End file.
